The Reflector

The MSU Police Department does a pretty good job of enforcing the rules on campus, with one major exception: They don't enforce the smoking policy at all.

Student Affairs' policy on the use of tobacco on campus states, "Smoking shall only occur at a reasonable distance (25 feet or more) outside any enclosed area where smoking is prohibited so as to insure that secondhand smoke does not enter the area through entrances, windows, ventilation systems, or any other means."

Now before you write me off as some kind of authoritarian hack trying to tell you how to live your life, let me make it clear that I don't care if you smoke. If looking "cool" is so important to you that you're willing to risk years off your life, go for it. However, I don't want you to do it around me.

Secondhand smoke is bad enough thanks to the awful stench and clouded air that it causes even if it weren't dangerous. But when you consider the health risk that secondhand smoke presents, it becomes downright rude for smokers to expose nonsmokers to it.

The tobacco companies have spent millions trying to deny that there is a health risk from secondhand smoke, and most smokers I know seem to buy it hook, line and sinker.

In his 2006 report on secondhand smoke, U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona reported that, backed up by "overwhelming scientific evidence," exposure to secondhand smoke causes heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory problems. Approximately 3,000 American nonsmokers die from lung cancer every year thanks to secondhand smoke, and the only way to prevent mass exposure to secondhand smoke is to set up smoke free environments.

If you want to disagree with a scientific consensus and the foremost body on health in the world, that's your prerogative, but remember that tobacco companies want you to keep smoking and keep buying cigarettes. Take that into account when you consider their science.

Almost daily, when I walk into my residence hall, people are standing right by the door smoking, and I have to endure the secondhand smoke. I have to wonder why the university has this policy when no one cares to enforce it. It doesn't help that cigarette butt canisters are often put right next to a door.

So what can be done about this? First, the canisters, which are a great idea, should always be put 25 feet away from a building. Second, the MSU Police Department should issue tickets to students who smoke within 25 feet of a building. The fine can be relatively light, but once a few students start getting fined, I think that would cut back tremendously on people ignoring the smoking policy. Anyway, if we're not going to enforce the policy, why have it in the first place?

Another place where the smoking policy is unenforced is Davis Wade Stadium, where smoking is only allowed in designated areas, not the seating areas. At least once every game this season, someone has lit a cigarette in the crowded student section and has received no punishment. These inconsiderate few who decide to light up are polluting the air of hundreds of people around them and exposing us all to secondhand smoke. The only solution to this I can think of is to kick people out of the stadium if they smoke in the seating area.

I don't want to make a blanket statement like, "Smokers are arrogant and completely disregard the health of other people." I am good friends with several smokers who are good people, but when I told them about my idea about ticketing people for smoking near a building, they got defensive and angry about it. They told me about how it was their right to smoke, and of course they sidestepped the issue.

Of course it's their right to smoke, as long as they're not endangering other people. Since secondhand smoke does cause cancer, they are endangering the health of others if they smoke too close to a building.

Harry Nelson is a senior majoring in math and polital science. He can be contacted at opinion@reflector.msstate.edu.

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